12/9/16 Joseph the Turkey Update

This past spring, after I finished the elk and the deer murals for my mom’s fiancé, Dan, he was so impressed that he kept looking around for other things for me to do. One of these he decided upon were some turkeys to go on the enter and exit doors of the garage. He originally got excited while we were planning the deer mural and wanted male and female turkeys in the foreground. Since we had already finished the elk mural on the left garage doors, we had that to consider during the planning process. Because despite being on two different doors, the murals would be in the same room together and viewed together, so, it would almost seem like they were one piece or a pair. So, while planning the deer, I made choices about the deer positions so that they would mirror the elk mural. Not only would turkeys in the foreground be extremely busy, unbalanced within the piece, it would also look unbalanced with the elk sitting beside it. So, we made a compromise with the turkeys to go ahead and put them on the doors of the garage.

The front of the garage has the two garage doors for the car and truck to enter. Along the one side of the garage is the staircase that goes to the second floor and the “man cave” and along the opposite wall of the garage are two doors, one right beside the car doors and one at the other end. That was where the turkeys would go, a male on the one door and two females on the other, almost a cute, “his and hers” thing while also mirroring the theme of “male and female” pairing of the other pieces. The doors, however, have creased molds in the middles of them that would make accuracy difficult. It wasn’t that big of a deal for the garage door murals because the pieces were so much bigger and the surface was mostly flat. With the door-doors, not only were the turkeys much smaller and finer detailed but the creases were smaller too. Plus, I’d be sitting really low to the ground in order to position them on the lower halves of the doors.

This was where I learned to think outside of the box: wall murals don’t actually have to be on the wall. Dan was the one to suggest glassboard panels that I could paint on and transport wherever I wanted and he could screw them onto the doors once they were finished. Now, I think, I will try to make such available for other customers, for those people who do not want or cannot have permanent paint on the walls of their homes, I can paint on a large wooden panel for them and they can mount it on the wall and remove it when/if they move, or reposition it if they like.

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Last May when I closed up shop and stopped painting, I was right in the middle of painting the male turkey, the aptly named, Joseph of the many colored coat. This was also where I was starting to learn and capture the essence of “disassociating” while painting. I remember not sleeping very well the night before the days I went in to paint and being forced to paint at the easel while feeling light-headed and ditzy(as I sometimes get when I am extremely tired). This is not required for me to get into this zone but it definitely helped me start associating the “zoning out” with my successful painting.

Since the feathers are layered, I started with the back tail feathers first and progressively worked my way forward. When I first attempted to paint the tail feathers, I was cursing and throwing things and very upset at it for not going the way I wanted and not looking exactly like the reference picture. So, on the day when I didn’t get very good sleep, my tone and approach was completely different. I remember looking at what I’d painted and the photo at several different points and realizing “this does not look like the photo” but being so out of it and light-headed that I couldn’t force myself to care. “Eh, that’s what feathers are going to look like now” is what I kept on saying to myself, moving on from each point. It wasn’t until I’d step back and look at it at the end of the day, that I’d realize what I had done. Suddenly the question of “does it look exactly like the photo” becomes irrelevant because the feathers actually look like feathers.

Last May, I was just getting started on the internal grouping of feathers which are multi-colored with an iridescent sheen. The feathers were so small, it felt cramped, and I didn’t have very much room to mix the paints right on the board like I wanted. Add onto this the fact that the paints were drying super fast due to the warm weather and it became extremely unfun to work on, and thus my deciding factor to stop and wait for cooler weather. Now, after my training over at Mimi’s Magic Garden daycare center(see the 3 entries “Toadstool, Valley, and Fairy Mural”), not only did I learn new techniques for painting but I had also captured the essence of disassociation. Being alone, early in the morning and for long hours at a time, my mind had to occupy itself, so, the fantasizing and loose thinking happened quite naturally. I didn’t need to be super tired to do it but sometimes it helped kick-start it.

That was how I approached Joseph when I faced him again, December 9^th, 2016. I found myself a secluded place, premixed each color before applying, sang to my music, and just let my mind wander. I worry that some of the colors are too light or the black of the shadows between them is too dark but I think I’m pretty much going to leave it as is. I might replace the matte black I have with gloss, though, because I've been noticing for a while that it stands out from the rest of the colors. The last thing I have to do for this one is the foot, which you can see as the solid blueish gray color coming from between his wings. After that, I’m going to get started on the female turkeys, which should be so much easier since they’re not all puffed up like he is.